A Week with the GR: Pros and Cons

Ergonomics – Buttons, dials, toggles and switches are well placed and have great feedback

Menu – It’s the most simplified, direct menu I’ve worked with

Lens – Sharp, compact and 28mm is just about ideal for street photography

Looks – Of course this and the other items I’ve mentioned above are subjective, but it’s gorgeous in a non-dramatic, understated way

Cons:

Battery life – It would be nice to see another hundred-ish shots out of one battery

ISO – The ISO ceiling is lower than I expected. We are getting greedy and spoiled these days, but I would like to have seen better results from the color files at ISO3200. Black and white is where I choose to shoot most often, and it’s not really much of an issue.

Aperture – Everything is a compromise, but I would have loved to seen f/2 lens on the GR.

Charger – The recent movement of not including a dedicated battery charger in the kit is frustrating, but is easily overcome.

Bottom Line:

What do I think? Would I recommend this to my fellow photographers? I love it and yes. It is not the most flexible camera on the market right now; instead Ricoh/Pentax have created a finely sharpened photographic tool aimed at photo enthusiasts and I for one am grateful.

Waiting for the light

A few things for sale

Yes, it actually does shoot color files…sometimes. This will give you an idea of the way the Ricoh GR processes it’s color files. Exposure adjustments were made, but colors were not touched.